Gay Canadian Masked Country Artist On Sub Pop Label. Film At... Now.

July 24, 2021 3:45 PM

After I heard about him, what really piqued my interest was when I saw that Orville Peck (Who Is Orville Peck? Toronto Star, Apr 2019) had done a cover of Bronski Beat's gay anguish anthem Smalltown Boy. The next video I watched was the myth-deconstructing No Glory In The West. And after that was a surprising cover of Bobbie Gentry's Fancy. I mean, who is this guy? {Orville Peck is (Essentially) Telling You the Truth, Billboard, Dec 2020)

Here he is talking about who he is! [9m38s]
Queen Of The Rodeo Dedicated to queer people working in rodeos ranches, and roadhouses.
Truckers in love in Drive Me, Crazy.
His most recent release is k.d. lang & Orville Peck - Miss Chatelane (Iron Hood Remix), Jun 25, 2021.

His album came out [Bandcamp] and he was about to tour when COVID. He's back on the road now, touring both Pony and his EP Show Pony (both YT playlists) If you live in Cheyenne, there might still be tickets left for tonight's show! [One Of Country's Most Colorful Artists To Make Cheyanne Debut, Yahoo News, Jul 23, 2021]

Hat tip to Nelson for drawing my attention to Orville. He seems like someone to watch over the next while. (Orville Peck Previously)

posted by hippybear (19 comments total)

Thanks for making this post! I've been really enjoying his career and music. Partly for the LGBT aspect, partly because he's really an excellent singer. I also like how he's deliberately copying some of the style of past stars, especially Johnny Cash, while also being understanding and respectful of their legacy. Plus the Nudie suits are awesome.

The video for Dead of Night is also fantastic and more than a little disquieting. Filmed at the Chicken Ranch Nevada, where the West is still wild.

Jackson is an absolutely fun video, a cover of the duet made famous by Johnny Cash / June Carter. Only this recording with Trixie Mattel, someone who could easily have her own Metafilter post. "We just really look like if neither the North or the South won. The gays won." I could watch Peck's ankles twisting in those gold boots all day. FWIW I wrote more about Jackson on my blog. Also Fancy.

I wish I could catch his current tour. He's played some big venues like Red Rocks. But he's also playing smaller places like a couple of bars or the Raccoon Motel in Davenport, IA. There's a bunch of YouTube video of small club shows he played in 2019 that looked like a lot of fun.
posted by Nelson at 4:01 PM on July 24, 2021 [5 favorites]

I just heard his cover Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” and it’s amaaaaazing.
posted by photoslob at 4:24 PM on July 24, 2021 [6 favorites]

I worked on Pony and he's the real deal.
posted by Evstar at 5:20 PM on July 24, 2021 [16 favorites]

I started listening to Orville Peck right around when Pony came out. My introduction was Turn to Hate, which is a pretty catchy tune. I love his range, both musically and in his singing.

And on the subject of Trixie Mattel, my daughter wanted me to take her to the Toronto Film Festival to catch Trixie's documentary, Moving Parts (it's on Neflix, I think). I'm glad I went, it was quite good.

And then there's Trixie and Katya, I Like to Watch, found on the youtubes and Netflix. This is some of the funniest and original material I've seen, delivered only the way queens do it. And UNHhhh. Yeah, Trixie Mattel definitely needs a post of her own.

Evstar, tell us more!
posted by ashbury at 5:42 PM on July 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

I'm a recordist and spent a couple days on vocal recordings before the album went out west to get finished. I knew him from a non musical circle so when he began to sing i was just stunned. We did a bunch of tunes but i think only 4 or 5 of them made it on the record.

We didn't labour over the performances. 2 or 3 takes max per song and done.
posted by Evstar at 6:00 PM on July 24, 2021 [12 favorites]

That's a great cover, but Nothing Beats Bronski Beat's ORIGINAL

Jimmy Fucking Somerville is a pint-sized falsetto GOD
posted by lalochezia at 6:00 PM on July 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

His music is amazing - I read this LA Times article (archive.is link), watched the video for Turn to Hate, and immediately bought the album. I love how he fuses the disparate sounds into something amazing - I hear echoes of Chris Isaak, Depeche Mode, even Sonic Youth (listen to Buffalo Run).

I had hoped to see him in April 2020, but of course that got canceled - I did watch his livestream show last year and it was so good.
posted by mogget at 6:12 PM on July 24, 2021

He hosts the country music episode of Netflix's This is Pop.
posted by jonathanhughes at 7:02 PM on July 24, 2021 [4 favorites]

Jimmy Fucking Somerville is a pint-sized falsetto GOD

I cannot disagree with this statement. I wish I could get more of a direct story from him about a lot of his life, but he won't. As it is, he's left us quite a legacy. He's still around, too! He did a disco album in 2014 that I don't think got nearly enough attention. He did a song for charity just earlier this year! Everything Must Change (Nine Simone cover)

I do really really like Orville's cover of Smalltown Boy, however. It's the same message aimed at a different subset of disaffected, abused, misplaced-in-life youth who need to hear it's possible to leave and find a new life. He manages to really recast it in a way that somehow feels important to me. I hope the right kids hear it, like did Jimmy's original decades ago and since.
posted by hippybear at 8:15 PM on July 24, 2021 [5 favorites]

Pony was a huge listen for me towards the end of last year. Truly some of my biggest envy as an AFAB non-binary-towards-transmasc person is towards people with those incredibly deep, resonant basement-bass voices like Peck's. There's not much that makes me want to trade in the hormone blend nature gave me for a big dose of T, but, holy fuck, if I could sing like that...
posted by terretu at 3:10 AM on July 25, 2021

I had no idea how bad his cover of Fancy was going to wreck me, but it did. And you're right, that. is. a. voice.
If he covers Hank Williams, my head will probably explode.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 4:08 AM on July 25, 2021

I have a couple of friends who just went on a road trip from San Francisco to see him perform in Wyoming and then Utah a few days later. They have nothing but good thugs to say about the trip and shows.
posted by mikesch at 7:37 AM on July 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

Is it really the case that no one has linked Legends Never Die yet? It's his duet with Shania Twain, y'all.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:34 AM on July 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

I saw that video and loved the grin when Shania just cuts him off.
posted by Oh_Bobloblaw at 12:22 PM on July 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

Legends Never Die is a great song, I love that it's got a rhythm that's so much like a nice slow fuck that it's almost obscene. It felt like this song was his plan for commercial breakout success; it's perfect for radio, it's got Shania Twain, done! I'm not that plugged in to commercial music but I guess it didn't quite take fire the way it might have. I have a theory that Peck's career has been really harmed by Covid. He put all this amazing material out right at the end of 2019 / early 2020 and was all set for a major tour summer of 2020. Oof.
posted by Nelson at 12:55 PM on July 25, 2021

Orville Peck made a guest appearance on Bon Appetit's YouTube channel (that's how I found him). Not going to link it after BA's racism scandal but the video should be easy googling if you’re curious.
posted by Eikonaut at 2:40 PM on July 25, 2021

I also had tickets for the ill-fated 2020 tour, and the new tour now comes NOWHERE NEAR ME. Aggggghhhhh
posted by FatherDagon at 8:24 AM on July 26, 2021

I have the opposite problem Fatherdagon, he came last weekend and I totally forgot. :-(
posted by ShakeyJake at 11:39 AM on July 26, 2021

They've just extended the current tour, announced on this Instagram post. The tour page is updated too. This set goes east in September and October: TN, NJ, RI, CT, NY, PA, ME, VA, NC, GA, MD. Tickets look to go on sale tomorrow, Wednesday morning.
posted by Nelson at 8:08 AM on July 27, 2021